the sega channel

Who remembers the Sega Channel? Chances are, very few of you. It was a service that was offered through your cable provider that basically gave you an endless rotation of fully playable Sega Genesis games via an attachment that resembled the 32X. Here's a picture I found of it that a very awesome dude somewhere took:Oh Sega, and your crazy Frankenstein experiments of the mid 90's...how I miss you. But focusing on the Sega Channel, I had it and it was fucking awesome.

Every month, there would be an average of 70 games available that you would just download and within minutes be able to play. Here's another lifted image that shows the main menu:
This was the shit to have. The Test Drives section was where you could play demos of games before they were released. Sometimes the full games were even available. Not only were games available to play before their release, but you could play imports as well. For example, until the release of the Sega Genesis Collection (PS2), Golden Axe 3 was never available in America...except for the Sega Channel, of course. As you can see from the image, most genres were represented so no matter what mood you were in, you could find a game you would want to play. Toward the end of the service, games were rotated even more frequently, giving you well over 100 different titles to choose from per month. Popular titles. Obscure titles. Exclusive titles. Every awesome game you remember for the Genesis plus every awesome game you've never even heard of was at your disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

There were a few downsides though. You could really only play one RPG at a time because you could only have a single save file for ALL of the RPGs. This meant that if you wanted to play through Shining Force II and Phantasy Star III, you would have to beat them one at a time and within a month in case they weren't carried over from month to month. Hell, it was almost pointless to start an RPG at the end of the month because you never knew if it was going to stick around for another 30 days. The other major annoyance was that Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Mortal Kombat 3 for whatever reason, were both split into two games. For example, Mortal Kombat 3A would have half of the characters while Mortal Kombat 3B would have the other half. You could never play with a full roster in either game which almost made them pointless. There was also a cheats section that would list cheats, tips, and codes for games available that month but there was no way to choose the cheats you wanted to view. Instead, you had to sit and wait as they slowly scrolled across the screen. And if you missed a particularly long password you would have to wait until the list reset and started scrolling over again. But all in all these are minor nitpicks considering what I'm about to tell you could blow your mind.

It was only $13 a month. Yep, around 100 games per month including imports, demos, and unreleased games for only $13. Clearly the biggest sign the industry has changed, the Sega Channel would never be allowed to happen now. Now that the industry seems to be moving more and more toward micro-transactions and dlc, this would be considered charity. The Sega Channel cost $13 per month and offered damn near every single Genesis game available on The Virtual Console, Playstation Store, and Xbox Live Arcade combined. Unfortunately, the Sega Channel launched nationally only about a year and a half away from the release of the Saturn and the announcement that the Genesis was to be discontinued in 1995. This basically sealed the fate of this wonderful service and it was labeled a failure with only 150,000 total subscribers by the time Sega pulled the plug in '97. The Sega Channel was apparently available to over 20 million Americans with cable, but only 150,000 households subscribed. Insanity.

It's interesting to note as well that the Sega Channel laid the groundwork for Xbox Live. Sega used their experience with the Sega Channel to create the Netlink for the Saturn (that's a whole blog by itself). After the Netlink failed, Sega used that groundwork to create SegaNet, which laid the groundwork for Xbox Live. Anyway, somebody please tell me I'm not the only one who got to experience this wonderful part of video game history...

-Brian T.

another subliminally pro-saturn entry

I want you to stop for a second and think about how many different game controllers you have actually held and played with for different consoles over the years. Go as far back as you can remember. You didn't have to own the game console, but if a friend did, it counts. Keep in mind that the Genesis, Saturn, XBOX, PSX, PS3, NeoGeo CD, and many others actually had TWO distinctly different controllers. I have used 18 different controllers for home consoles. 18. That's a lot of controllers. The strangest thing though is how little they've actually changed.If you think about it, controllers basically took 2 paths. There is a Nintendo path...and there is a Sega path. Both Nintendo and Sega started with extremely similar-looking controllers for the NES and Master System respectively. But when the two launched their 16-bit consoles, the real innovation began. Let's start with the Genesis. First Sega released the 3 button pad, establishing contour and the "boomerang" shape that is still prevalent today. They soon released a six-button version that, while smaller, made all games (especially fighters) easily playable on the Genesis.

Nintendo came out of the gate with an awesome controller with the SNES as well. It had triggers and the 4 face buttons were arranged in a diamond shape. Moving along the timeline, this diamond-shaped controller and basic SNES design should be noted when you consider how Sony got into the console business. For those of you who don't know, Sony was originally hired by Nintendo to create a disc-based add-on for the SNES to compete with the Sega CD. Upon the Sega CD's massive failure, Nintendo basically fired Sony and decided to stick with cartridges for the N64. Sony took what they'd been working on and and made it into the Playstation...which destroyed the N64 without mercy. The funny thing is though, the original Playstion controller was basically identical to the SNES controller. It added another set of triggers and the exaggerated boomerang shape, but even the diamond-shaped button layout was the same. Hell, the Dualshock 3 is essentially an SNES controller with analog sticks attached if you squint at it hard enough.

Sega, on the other hand, stuck with the 6 button route, added triggers, and created a controller that many argue was FAR more comfortable than the PSX controller for the Saturn. When they released Nights, they also launched a new 3D controller with an analog stick which essentially became the Dreamcast controller. Just in the same way that the Dualshock 3 is an SNES controller, the XBOX 360 controller can be traced directly back to the Genesis just by looking at it. The basic shape and contour match and the analog stick placement is identical to the Saturn/DC controllers.

Nintendo basically decided when they launched the N64 that they were never going to made a good controller again so they released the horribly designed N64 controller which many games required you to have to jump back and forth between the d-pad and the stupidly placed analog stick. While fans of Goldeneye swear it's a great controller, everyone else realized it sucked. It also started Nintendo's trend of making their buttons whatever the fuck and size and shape they want. The Gamecube controller is a disgusting little mess and as much as Nintendo is once again trying to revolutionize controllers with the Wii, that controller pretty much sucks too for most practical games.

It's interesting to note that while I grew up mostly on Sega systems and the Saturn controller is my favorite controller of all time, I actually find the Dualshock 3 to be the best controller on the market despite the fact that I was never a huge fan of the SNES design. What about you guys? I'm curious to see if people who grew up on Sega systems prefer the 360 controller and if SNES owners prefer the Dualshock 3. Comment back and let me know!

-Brian T.

saving sega

Capcom announced Mega Man 10 today for WiiWare which is pretty awesome. I'm a pretty big Mega Man fan, so it's always nice to see more of a classic. The game will have the old-school 8-bit look, which I still commend Capcom for doing with Mega Man 9. Updating the classic gameplay for newer generations has given us some good and some not so good Mega Man titles, but how many times have you ever seen a developer actually go back to what made the original titles so good in the first place?

Sega, out of any publisher or developer, has had one of the biggest falls from grace in video game history. And while their hardware decisions in the mid and late 90's had the biggest impact on the company, Sega has fucked up even bigger with some of their biggest money-making franchises. Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is Sonic and the fact that there hasn't been a great classic Sonic game in over 10 years. Somehow Sega makes money off of the mediocre and shitty Sonic games they put out and continue to drag this legendary gaming icon through the mud. The closest attempts at classic Sonic gameplay recently seemed to be the Sonic Rush series, and even those took too many steps away from the original formula. But what if Sega just went all out and made a Sonic the Hedgehog 5? All sprites, all midi. It would cost them nothing and they could release it digitally at $14.99 and make a killing.

What about Golden Axe? The first 3 were classics (I was lucky enough to play the 3rd as a kid through the Sega Channel), but I remember for the Saturn title, Sega decided to make a fighter. It could have been cool, but it kinda sucked. And then after a 10 year hiatus, Sega put out Golden Axe Beast Rider as if to say "Hey, remember those really awesome Golden Axe games you used to play? Well this game is a bomb that will destroy every good memory you ever had about the series...fuck you." Why doesn't Sega just made Golden Axe 4 and give us a proper beat-em up. Or better yet, Streets of Rage 4!

Anyone remember Sega's laughable almost-attempt at a new Vectorman title?You can see why this piece of shit got cancelled...at least they came to their sense with this one. They still managed to fuck up classic franchises like Shining Force with bland titles that had nothing to do with the original games for the Genesis and Saturn.

The point I'm trying to make is that Sega needs to stop trying to find shitty new ways to ruin classic games and just go back and pretend it's still the early 90's. When Golden Axe Beast Rider was announced, nobody got excited. Nobody cared. All you had to do was look at the game and see that it wasn't Golden Axe. If Sega wants real Sonic fans to get excited about the next Sonic game, maybe he shouldn't look like fucking Taz. This could easily become a two-part blog, but I'm going to stop myself now before I start thinking about all of the ways that Sega has let me down.

-Brian T